Virgin Money London Marathon 2015

Months and Months of training; mile upon miles of pavement covered; daily routines of waking at 4:15 every morning, five to six times a week with the sole purpose of getting out onto the streets by 4:30am to train before heading off to work.
This is what it took to get me through running my first ever marathon. My marathon of choice; the London Marathon. Why? to respect the memory of my mother; to improve my health; and to show those who never thought it possible that I could do something as extreme as running a marathon.
So is that it? Do I now rest on my laurels and enjoy normality again?
Well; for me running is normality, which; in turn; means that I shall continue to stick to the routine of waking up at silly o'clock each morning, and I shall continue to push the boundaries of what my body is capable of doing.

So how did London go?
In short it was awesome; but I don't do "in short" so sit back, strap in, and enjoy the read! :)

There is a lot to think about when you attend such events'.
Travel, accommodation, food, luggage, costs, etc... etc... etc...
Thankfully; due to living in Ealing for a few years; I know of one or two little handy bits of vital info that make my life a ton easier when visiting anything in London.
The most important thing is where to park the car. There is a handy little parking lot that I know of that is open 24hrs a day, and charges only between the hours of 7AM and 6PM. £1 per hour mon-fri, £3 for the whole day Saturday, and £1 for the whole day on Sunday. A lot of other long stay parking lots charge you a hell of a lot more money for this kind of parking facility so it was a no brainer, park the car up on Friday afternoon, pay the few quid for the rest of the day, and then use the RingGo app to remotely pay for parking on Saturday and Sunday, no worrying about returning to the car to buy a new ticket or anything. Job done.
We also had the luxury; and borrowing a very close friends' flat in Earls Court, literally one block away from Earls Court tube station. Bonus!
Saturday saw us (us being myself, the wife and the boy who is 4) waking up nice and early to get to the expo in order to register, and collect my goody bag etc.. Doing this with the wife was fine, doing it with a bored; and very irritable; 4 year old not so fine.
We got back to the flat for just after midday and then did nothing but chill out and relax.

6AM Sunday morning and my eyes shot open; it was here; it was race day. Finally all the miles, hours, early morning, were all going to be coming to one big day. One big effort of running my first ever marathon.
My phone was awash with facebook messages and emails from people all over the world wishing me good luck and letting me know that my mother would be proud of the activity I was about to undertake in her memory.
I got myself showered, changed and ate a nice little pre-race breakfast; a bagel with peanut butter and banana; and then got my race pack ready.

I loaded my hydration pack with 1.5ltrs of water, 3 High5 Energy+ sachets which provide electrolytes, carbohydrates and Caffeine, and 3 SiS gels. This is my super juice recipe, though i must admit, in such volume, it does get rather sticky and sweet in the mouth after a while, especially when it gets a little warmer later on in a long run. I think that in future I will take a bottle of fresh water too just so that I have something to freshen my mouth out when needed.
I left the flat with wife and child still soundly asleep in the flat; I tried to wake her to let her know I was leaving, but I knwe she would be off again soon without me there to get er out of bed.

After a train journey of nearly 45mins to an hour I arrived at Greenwich station, and began the walk up to the Red Zone starting area with the rest of thousands of runners who had joined the train at different stations.
I managed to meet up with a few of my charity team, but soon departed in order to drop my bags with the luggage cart, get myself mentally ready and then hopefully try to find one of the virtual running buddies from the on-line running community of which I am a member (www.therunningbug.co.uk). Alas this meeting didn't happen as I had to quickly attend the loo, and was forced to vacate the area that we were to meet at. As i walked toward the provided toilet area I was struck by a wall of people, the dreaded queue for the loo! Let's just say that if you were in a "bind" and needed to hit the head quickly, you were in trouble. I have never seen such queues, they were ridiculously long! Thankfully though, the guys have it easy, a cordoned off  area containing multiple portable urinal facilities. In, out, within a matter of a few minutes, unfortunately I knew that if I tried to go back to the meeting place to see my friend from the running bug it would take too long, she would be gone, and I would then be fighting to get to my starting pen so i just went and found the pen and waited for the start.
How I wished I had actually gone to try and find her now! I must have stood on that starting area for about an hour! or at least that's what it felt like, and it wasn't warm either!
Thankfully though I met two guys from my charity team and stood chatting with them for the duration. Really top guys, looking to try and run the same; or similar; times to me.
We saw many a strange sight though, large guys dressed as women, a guy dressed in a massive cartoon nurse outfift (see the attached pic), and just a lot of strange things going on which you would only expect to find at such an event; it just added to the spectacle of it all though, and it was awesome!

We finally set off on the start, I think it must have taken us about 5-10mins to get over the actual start line, but within minutes of starting there were already blokes darting off into the bushes going for a pee!! I know we were stood in the starting pens for a long time, but grief!
Within a few kilometres i knew that my race strategy was shot, there were just too many people running to be able to stick to any form of pace, or actual running form. Every step you took was a game of trip or be tripped, and the amount of people who have no actual consideration for what; or who; is around them is just crazy. I always try to have a look around at what is surrounding me before I start to make a move to overtake someone, or to take a gap I can see; and if there is anybody near me, I signal to show that I'm going to be making said move so that those people know what is happening. A lot of people; and I have found this in every race I've done so far; just either bolt into a space, elbowing their way through, or slowly meander across the road sideways; left, and right; without a care in the world."we run forward people, not side to sodding side!" I didn't say this out loud mind, it was merely what was screaming in my head.
I had planned to run my first 10k at a pace of 5:19 per km; and apart from the first km I was managing to hold a pace that was under that target, so felt that I was in a good place at the time. It was when we broke into the second quarter of the race that I started to think that my finishing target of 3hrs45 was very much a distant dream. This broke me a little I must admit. All the support from all my running friends; all the belief people had/have in me to be able to run quicker than I was doing; it was all being blown away; it made me feel like I was failing them; and my mother. I wanted to run this marathon as best I could, and then I realised that at the end of the day, I was. There was nothing I could do about the crowds, or the pace, or anything. The only thing I could do was to run as well as I could, and so that's what I did. At least I still felt fine!

I continued on my run as though nothing was troubling me, every now and then getting my selfie stick and phone set up so that I could take some snaps of the event as it happened; I didn't want to take any vids as I didn't want that to destroy the memory reserves I had freed up in my phone. Ah the selfie stick. If you ever want to cause a stir in a main event such as this crack out a selfie stick! The amount of people that suddenly came alive within the runners was amazing, and the crowd went mental too. There was cheering, laughing, comments being shouted left right and centre; it was brilliant, and really made me chuckle.
"oh wow a selfie stick!"
"look that guy has a selfie stick!"
"oh wow, he's running with a selfie stick!"
Grief; seriously? Take a trip into town on a night out and every second girl has a selfie stick in her bag ready to whip out for some duck faced pouty photo opp at the bar, or in the toilet (!?); whip one out at a major sporting event; something that you would want to capture for the rest of your life and people find it surreal! Maybe I have the wrong kind of priorities! lol. Or maybe people just don't think about these kind of things enough.

Before I knew it were were at the 21km marker. 21km? Where did that go? I did not feel like i had just run a half marathon. I hadn't even looked at my Garmin properly which was strange as i normally time check every few hundred metres; but I guess that was due to the fact that I knew there was no point.
It was then though that i suddenly had a very big injury scare!
A sharp pain suddenly started bolting through my right foot; like someone sticking a big fat thorn into my foot every time I landed on it. "Oh no!" I thought I had just given myself plantar fasciitis; or something of that nature, and I began to stress; there was no way I could run another half marathon on this kind of pain! It took me about 3 or 4km to adjust my stride, work on how my foot was landing; what was making the pain go away, and what wasn't. Eventually it just went away and I was back to normal.

The rest of the run was pretty standard really, I just pressed on where i could, slowed up where I had to etc... but then it happened; somewhere between 10 & 6km to go to the finish; closer to the 6k mark I think; cramp! I've never had  cramp set in whilst running, but this pain just started to grow in the muscle on the upper right hand side of my left quad/knee area. It was agony, but I didn't want to stop. surely if I just ran through it it would go away right? Wrong! It just kept coming, sneakily fading for a few metres, lulling me into a false sense of security and then coming back and bighting at me again and again. I had started consuming the spare gels I had with me back at the 15km to go marker, my plan being to use one gel per 5k for the final 15km distance.
The first gel I took whilst running, the second I had to slow down considerably, and by the third; and final; gel I was reduced to walking; I had failed! I knew now that my hopes of a minimum 3:45 finish time were slipping away with every step I took, and it was soul destroying. Walking next to thousands of people watching; I wanted to be anywhere else but where I was at that point. Then I opened my ears, and listened to what was happening around me; it was those thousands of people watching that pushed me back into gear:
"COME ON GO!"
"DON'T STOP!"
"KEEP GOING, KEEP GOING, YOU'RE NEARLY THERE!"
I was on the verge of tears with the thoughts of my failure, but those screams and shouts hit home. I was nearly home! I didn't want to stop! I could go!
The cramp eased slightly and I pushed my legs to run once more and as soon as I did the crowd at my side went absolutely ballistic "YYYAAAAAYYYY!! THAT'S IT, GO ON GO!"
I have never felt such an uplifting feeling in all my life. To be supporting in such a manner by people who I had never met, never seen before, and would probably never see again in my life; it was simply amazing. I did walk again once or twice, but merely for a few seconds to ease the cramp that just wouldn't let up in my left leg.
When I did run, I just managed what I could, until I got to the final few hundred metres where I pushed through the pain in order to get over that line as quickly as I could.

I had done it. I had just completed my first ever marathon; the London Marathon.

What was good was that the time I clocked on my Garmin read 3:52:25, and the official chip time placed me a second quicker at 3:52:24; I found that rather remarkable actually!

Overall I absolutely loved the entire thing; the crowds; the spirit, everything. Unfortunately I did pass two very unfortunate guys at different points, one who was covered in a foil blanket and laid out in the recovery position; he was completely gone and didn't even look like he was breathing; and then another much later on who unfortunately didn't look like he was actually still with us. It might have been the angle at which I saw him, but it honestly did look like they had covered him completely; which would normally only indicate one very unfortunate outcome; I do hope that it was merely the angle at which I saw that incident though. 

Some of the other good points though was meeting some more fellow charity team members who I ran with at different points, and shared a good few minutes of conversation with (something my wife finds remarkably crazy!).
I also had a funny moment on Tower Bridge where i was taking a few selfie snaps of myself; and those around me. As I started to bring the camera down to pack up, an Asian chap suddenly appeared next to me and shouted out sadly that he had missed the photo op..."no no, smile again!" I shouted as i quickly whipped the camera back up and caught a few snaps with him. He loved it; he was funny!
I also got to run with Tigger and Winnie the Poo at one stage, as well as a young girl who I saw bouncing around behind me as I took more selfie snaps at a different stage in the race. I noticed her in the picture and carried on taking pics for her, pointing out that I was doing it for her, to which point she yelped joyfully and did a little jump and funny face, ran up beside me and giggled like a little girl...she was class!
I think my favourite moment was whilst we were running through the second of two tunnels; apologies for not knowing my London locations well enough to name the tunnel; but there were no supporters in here, and they were playing music, the Happy song by Farrell (I think; again; apologies for not being "down with the kids" on this one, but I'm normally more of a metal, rock and trance man really). I do like that song though and found that its beat was just perfectly in time with my running at that point. It was as if I were one of those guys that have started this new viral trend of run-dancing on treadmills. I was bopping along as if i had just started my run, felt fresh, fine, and didn't have a care in the world, even though we were miles into a marathon at this stage.
This young lady ran up beside me and calmly asked; with a huge smile on her face:
"Are you dancin!"
I looked down at her (so many short people), smiled and simply replied "I am indeed!" lol
She laughed and pressed on with a little wave. She made me smile; I loved it!

I know that I struck a few low points through this run, but I have come to terms with my result, and how the race actually went.
I do not feel like I have failed in my mission to do what I wanted to do; and that was to commemorate my mothers' loss in the most extreme way I could think of. I had done! I had just run a bloody marathon! It wasn't too long ago that I was smoking. It wasn't too long ago that I would have thought you bloody mental for even suggesting that I run for a bus, let alone go jogging every day, OR, try to run a marathon.
To achieve a sub 4hr marathon on my first attempt, with crowd conditions as they were, and with the issues I faced later on with cramp is an absolutely brilliant achievement; and one that has tought me a few things too.
I know why I got cramp too; or at least I think I do. I normally run in tights, or in shorts, with compression tights on underneath. For this race I ran in a new pair of racing shorts, with no tights, no compression on my thighs or anything. I think that this is what caused the cramp; but it has just made me see that I need to work more on my overall upper leg strength now, and continue to train my muscles more efficiently.

So that is my marathon story; I hope you haven't fallen asleep!
Now then...where is that events book I got? It's time to start training for my next challenge; running 50k & greater!
Stay tuned folks!
PS: enjoy the pics :)

Weight Loss, Dieting & Why You See No Change

I am not a dietician. I am not a nutritionist. I am no Doctor, personal trainer, chemist or professional in the food industry. I am merely someone who cares a lot about food, weight, health and learning about these topics.

I like to research these issues because; at the end of the day; it’s what helps me to keep my weight down, as well as that of my wife and child. If what I learn along the way can help other people to achieve the same goals then that can’t be a bad thing can it? Just take note that I have already said I am no professional in any of these fields; im just a guy who has learned certain things on his journey to a healthier life.

 

Let me start off properly by saying that I started my journey weighing in at 96kg on April 24^th 2014. I now; 2 days short of the anniversary of that first weigh in; am at 77kg. I do still have a long way to go; as I still have a lot more body toning/muscle building to do; but as long as I can try to maintain a weight around 77-75kg I will continue to be happy with where I am now in regards to my overall weight.

 

So what is the point of this blog post, this title, and the upcoming rant? Well; it’s because of how many times I see; and hear; people moaning about their weight, punishing themselves with certain diets etc… but then moaning some more about the fact that they aren’t seeing any differences. It’s also because I get so annoyed when I see people coming in to my office workplace; supposedly on said diets; and then cracking open a can of “diet” coke at eight in the morning. You didn’t read that wrong; EIGHT O’CLOCK in the morning!

“Oh but it’s diet, it’s low calorie coke!”

It isn’t all about the calorie, or fat quantity, it is the sugar content, and that isn’t just coke; its everything!

 

I appreciate; that many people have a generally good diet, but there are still lots of questions that float around regarding weight loss. People looking for advice on how to lose those few extra pounds in order to see the benefit of the exercise they are putting themselves through.

At the end of the day it comes down to what you are putting into your diet, not how much you are eating, or how little. Yes, obviously, if you eat a ton of food a day you are going to put weight on, but what you are actually eating makes a hell of a difference. When I say that you need to pay attention to what you are eating, I mean seriously that you need to really look at what you are buying in the shops, and what you are putting into your food. When you eat is also a major part of weight loss. I eat more now, than I ever did when I was overweight. I used to eat barely anything throughout the day, and then stock up on a large meal at night. WRONG! That; it turns out is the worst thing you can do. Now I eat five times a day; healthy breakfast, snack, healthy lunch, snack, and then a healthy dinner as early as possible before bed; and I restrict myself completely from eating anything at all after eight o’clock at night. Eating regular healthy meals and snacks keeps your body ticking over, it allows your body to receive a constant source of essential nutrients which maintain your body functionality; keeps it awake; and keeps it processing. Eating one or two meals throughout the day allows your body to go into a hibernation state. It doesn’t allow for the body to continue working, to continue processing all the different elements that you are putting into it. It essentially has nothing to do with all that energy you just filled it with, and so it stores it as fat.

 

I have known for a while now that a lot of products that are on the supermarket shelves contain a lot of things that are bad for you. Last night I watched a documentary on Netflix called Fed Up and if you are interested in this topic then I strongly suggest you watch it, it is brilliant. Whilst it may be focused around the American food industry, I still think that a lot of what goes on over there happens over here too, and it certainly has made me want to start looking; even more; into the things I put into our food at home.

 

Anyway, back to the points…

Why do we diet, yet struggle to see any changes? The answer is; pretty much; because you are not eating the right things. It doesn’t really matter (in general) that you have chosen the “low cal” or “fat free” option. It doesn’t matter that you have reduced your full fat coke to a diet, or zero cal coke. It doesn’t matter that you have changed your meals from pre-packed; frozen, ready meals for a home cooked meal (though this is your biggest step to reducing your risk of most heart problems, diabetes risks, and weight gain); you are still not looking at the biggest problem in food; sugar! Sugar is the biggest issue in food at the moment, and whilst I already knew that sugar was bad, after watching Fed Up last night I realised just how bad.

Now, I totally accept that many people will sit there and say that there are a lot of conspiracy theories out there, and that not everything is as bad as they say it is. That’s fine, maybe I have one or two points in this piece that are not 100% accurate; I’ve already said that im no professional in this field; but ever since I cut sugar out of more than; I would say; roughly 70-80% of my diet, my weight plummeted, and I started to feel a hell of a lot healthier, coincidence maybe, but I firmly believe that I made the right choice to start cutting sugar out of the things I eat as much as possible; last night; watching this documentary; really cemented that theory for me.

 

“but I don’t buy frozen meals anymore, and I do cook from scratch now!”; I can hear some people saying these things already, because this is what I get at work when I talk to people about food during our lunch breaks. These conversations arise based on people commenting on how healthy my lunches look compared to theirs.

Maybe you do cook at home now; well done; you are well on your way to improving your health; but now you need to look at what you are using to cook with. Is everything you use “clean”? Does it still have sugar in it? I think that if you start looking at the ingredients and figures on food packaging you will be shocked.

Are you going to use a jar of sauce for that pasta dish that you are going to make tonight, or are you going to use some proper; fresh produce to make your own sauce? I can guarantee you right now that the sauce you make from scratch will not only taste better, but it will contain a hell of a lot less sugar than that jar you were going to pop open. Why? Because the jar of sauce you’re using will have heaps of added sugar on top of the natural sugars that you will find in the ingredients; whereas the sauce you are making will have nothing extra added to those natural sugars.

 

Someone actually tried to argue with me that the apple I was eating was just as bad as the coke that they were drinking in regards to the sugar content. This may be true, however; the sugar that is contained within that coke is just sugar. The sugar that is contained within my apple, or any other fruit; contains different elements such as different levels of carbohydrates, fibre and other essential nutrients. These other elements are what help the body to create insulin, which is needed to turn the sugars into glucose, which is then absorbed into the body and used up as energy. The coke does not contain these added essential nutrients, the sugar stays as sugar, and the body stores it as fat!

 

Today someone in the office is celebrating their birthday, they have brought a number of yummy, sugary treats into the office. I stood with a colleague who eagerly chomped down on one of the yumyums from ASDA that were on the table; I used to love yumyums; I stood and ate my apple.

“Just have one!” she said, “it won’t kill you to treat yourself!”

“actually, given the fact that I am not running anywhere near the amount, or distance, that I would normally be covering at the moment, having one of those will do more damage than you think!”

 

It isn’t that it would have killed me to have one of the treats, it’s the fact that the sugar would make me want more. Having the will power to just say no to it is the biggest effort I think. The minute that you allow yourself to slip; at a time where you wouldn’t normally slip; is where the slope heads downwards. I am not saying that I don’t treat myself at all, hell, I had a bowl of ice cream last night, with two teaspoons of crunchy peanut butter mixed into it, because I know that at that time it isn’t going to cause me a problem. I wasn’t going to sit there craving another bowl of ice cream, but if I am sat at work, knowing that there are treats in the canteen calling my name, and I tease my taste buds with that sugariness, I am going to want to go back time and time again looking for more, because I will be able to. One treat may not be too bad, but five, six, or seven most certainly will.

 

I do also appreciate that many people will sit here saying that they simply do not have the time to cook things from total scratch; or that they can’t afford to buy fresh products all the time like that, or even the worst; that they don’t know enough about cooking to enable them to do so. I know that these questions will be floating around because I used to say things like this to myself.

I don’t have time. You will be surprised at just how much time you actually do have. Maybe stop watching much of the tele that you sit through and go into the kitchen and try something new. You could even try going to bed a little earlier so that you can wake up earlier, you will be amazed at just how much you get done when you get out of bed earlier than normal. Please don’t come back at me with the old fave “im not a morning person”, that just winds me up. My wife hates mornings, but once woke up at about the same time I went to work; this never happens. When I got home from work that night she couldn’t stop banging on about how much work she had managed to get done around the house, and then had loads of time left on her hands to do whatever she wanted; funny that!

I can’t afford fresh produce all the time.  I totally empathise with this statement as this was the game changer for me. I always used to think that fresh produce cost so much more than pre-packed goods. If you actually shop around you really will be amazed at what you will find. My wife uses an online shopping website; I can’t remember the name unfortunately; that allows you to input your shopping items, it then sorts out the best deals between the different retailers and shoes you where sells what for the best prices. We end up using one of the major retailers for our household items; and frozen goods such as mixed veg, peas, meat etc…; more than the others purely because they always come out on top by nearly £30-£40 on average, I won’t mention which store this is purely in the interest of remaining impartial. I then remove that amount spent in the online shop from the overall monthly shopping budget that I have sorted from the household earning. The difference of the online shop and the monthly budget is then split equally across the rest of the month into a weekly budget. I then go to different nearby stores on a Saturday morning and purchase our fresh produce, fruits, certain veg like courgettes, butternut squash, kale, lettuce etc etc etc… things that you wouldn’t normally put in the freezer, but can’t be kept for very long periods of time due to how quickly they are used. I have managed to bring our grocery shopping down to an average spend of £200 a month, and given that we are a single earning household I don’t think that is too bad at all. I think we do even better when people tell me that they spend approximately £100-£150 a week, and we eat better than them! £100-£150 A WEEK!!!! Jesus, im in the wrong sodding job! It is literally all about being aware of the options available to you, making sure you don’t get sucked in to the marketing ploys that are out there.

I stopped a bloke in a shop the other day because I saw him about to fall for one of the biggest jokes I’ve ever seen in a store; again I won’t say which one. In this store they have different Nandos’ bottled sauces, I don’t know the exact sizes but one selection of bottles are small; let’s say 75ml; whilst the others are large; let’s say 200ml. One or two of the flavours are the same, but most of them are different. The prices for all variations; flavours, sizes etc? £1.99 per bottle. Now, know that when it comes to the different flavours between the bottles, yes, I may want to get the smaller option because it doesn’t have a larger bottled option, but I am certainly going to pick the bigger bottle if the flavours are the same, and I will certainly consider changing the flavour option to the bigger bottle rather than paying the same price for a bottle that is half the size just because it’s a specific flavour. Bear in mind though, this would only be a treat situation too as I wouldn’t normally buy bottled sauces anymore ;) my point is that people don’t pay attention to what their buying, they see a different coloured price tag, or a different font, and BANG, it must be a good deal, not always. You may think I have no place in stopping a complete stranger and pointing out that they could be saving themselves some money, or getting a better deal, I like to help people, and the bloke I stopped was not only amazed at the comparison, but also very thankful that I had pointed it out to him.

And finally; the classic; I don’t know how to cook well enough to cook from scratch! Well; simply put; learn. People often tell me that they find cooking boring, fair enough, if you find it boring, you find it boring, I cannot change that, but have you tried? Or have you made yourself believe that it is boring because you are not willing to try and learn new things? Personally I find cooking extremely rewarding, therapeutic and fun. You can include the entire family in it, or you can do it on your own. And at the end of it, you either come out with something extremely nice that you have made all by yourself, from scratch, OR, you made something that isn’t that great; but hey; let’s try and see what happens if I change this ingredient for this instead, and see if that changes the flavour for a better one? I read cook books, I watch cookery shows which help me to learn new things. Fair enough I had a lot of help to know the basics because my mom was a damn good home cook who included me in a lot of the cooking, because I showed an interest; and my dad has been in the hotel/catering industry his entire life which meant that he showed me a broader variety of international cuisines. The point is that cooking is something that everyone; especially those wanting to improve health and weight etc…; should really give more time to in order to be able to monitor what it is that you are putting into your body.

 

At the end of the day, the more fresh produce you put into your body, the more you will start to regulate the sugar content that is going in to your diet. I am not perfect, I am not claiming that I am, nor that I think I am better than anybody else. I still snack, I still buy certain products from time to time that I know are not great for me, but I don’t make it a habit, and I certainly don’t sit there wondering why I put a few extra pounds on in a week where I helped myself to a bowl of ice cream three or four times in that week. We don’t buy ice cream every week, we had some because I made a fresh apple crumble for pudding after a Sunday roast where my dad paid us a visit, the first time we have seen him since Christmas.

 

I am sorry if anything I say comes across as a high and mighty; wannabe statement; or even if you think that I should just keep my thoughts to myself. If you think that that is fine; but there are people out there who don’t know what to do; who do ask certain questions. People who do genuinely appreciate other people speaking out, or pointing out specific things. I am not trying to say that anybody is wrong in the way they live their lives, just that maybe they are missing a few things that can aide them in their quest for healthier living.

I like to help people, knowing that someone was able to improve something in their lives because of something you said, or wrote, or did, is the best feeling in the world.

And also please accept, that I would not make any of the comments, or statements I have above, if I hadn’t actually experienced, or practiced any of it. I try to live my life as best I can, and am always tweaking things here and there based on new pieces of information that I learn along the way.

 

I hope that you have read this as an informative piece of writing, and not just some oddball rant.

 

Silverstone Half Marathon - My Race, My Way

I look forward to most runs I do; be it a training run, or a race event; but I have never been as amped; or “geared up”; as I was for running around the Silverstone track.

 

WARNING: You might want to be sitting comfortably as this could turn into a bit of a lengthy read!

 

Everyone always says that you should taper before a race; run only once or twice in the lead up to an event; and definitely don’t run any long runs. Not only is it supposed to help you stay away from injury, but it is also supposed to allow your legs the time to freshen up and get ready for the race/event.

Whilst I did effectively taper, I did it a little differently. I couldn’t just not run, my body does not enjoy the abandonment of its routine, and I knew that if I tapered the way you “should” that my legs would be really heavy. Generally my legs need a good run in in order to get up to speed.

I did drop my regular mileage by nearly two thirds, ran a 15k on Wednesday, then 10 on Thursday and a 5 on Friday. In each run I worked on a new type of training I’ve picked up on called negative split training. This is where you make sure that the second half of the distance you’re running is done at a quicker pace than the first half. This is not the same as progression running. Progression running is where you try to get each mile; or kilometre; is run quicker than the last. Negative split running is; as said; trying to run a specific pace for the first half, and a then reducing that pace by a fair amount; and then holding it; for the second half. It is a really good way to train your body to be able to cope with a race, where you want to be pacing yourself evenly throughout so that you have the energy to finish strong; and boy does it work!

 

I got a good; early; night on Friday, but was already not able to sleep so just lay there reading my book (Run or Die) until about midnight when the wife eventually came to bed.

Saturday I did nothing but relax; cooked a nice lasagne for dinner, got a shoulder of pork nicely prepped and started in the slow cooker ready for when I got home on Sunday afternoon, and just made sure that I snacked throughout the day on nice little carb items.

I didn’t sleep much that night either; just too excited!

 

Race day was here!

 

I woke at about 4ish; tried to go back to sleep but that just was not happening! I got out of bed, made myself a really nice bowl of porridge using some hazelnut milk and just generally took my time most of the morning, even allowed myself a few minutes in bed; before I did get up; to actually just read a bit more of my book; which I must be honest, isn’t really gripping me as much yet as Born to Run, or Eat and Run; but I will read it to the end and give it the full attention it deserves.

 

I planned on leaving the house at 07:30 even though the journey was only an hour, to an hour fifteen minutes long. I didn’t want to get stuck in any traffic, especially as I had read lots of nightmare stories about how bad it could get at Silverstone. I was ready to roll far too early, and because I get really jittery when I have to sit around waiting I just decided to set off at 07:15.

Needless to say, there was nothing on the roads, and I was in the parking lot at Silverstone by 08:30; I think I was about the 6^th car in the whole area!! In hindsight I should have sat in my car for a bit and just read more of my book, but I got my stuff together and went off for a walk about. It soon struck me just how cold it was, and the nice warmth of my car was but a luxury I was a good 10mins walk away from already so I just trundled on into the paddock area.

The first thing I did was familiarise myself with the area, it would turn out later that I didn’t familiarise myself too well though; this will become apparent later on! (clues = dunce moment!)

I went to one of the vendor vans that were on site and bought myself a cappuccino coffee to try and warm up; this turned out to be a cup of warm frothy milk and was quickly returned for a proper cup of what I had ordered; unfortunately it wasn’t an ideal cup of coffee, but I don’t expect the finest grade A quality cuppa from a vendor like that to be fair.

I sat at one of the tables they had set up, and prepped my gear as best I could with my shivering; and almost numb; hands.

 

I didn’t bother reading my book, I was too busy trying keep my arms, hands and brain moving. I got my soft flask water bottle out; which I had ready filled with water; and poured a High5 Energy+ sachet into it. I then added two SiS gels into the mix and gave it all a good old shake up, and put it back in the bags that we were provided with in our race packs. The race bag is something I think could do with a little more thought in future really….no handles, and a draw string that is only connected at the top of the bag. I think it should at least have been connected to the bottom of the bag too so that you could carry it on your shoulder properly. Instead, you just had to grip the bag in your fist the entire time; and when you are told that you must be on site by 10:30 at the latest, with the race starting at noon, and not being allowed to return to the bag once dropped; it’s a bit of a design fault.

Anyway; the coffee didn’t last very long, it didn’t stay hot for very long either!

I got my number pinned to my vest, my chip tied to my shoe laces, and then got my gloves on and started sipping at another bottle of water I had with me for pre-race fuelling; this was also filled with a sachet of High5 Energy+ powder.

 

It was now about 10:00-10:15 and decided to walk around a bit more. I was a little surprised at how little there was for people to look at or do etc… not really sure what I would expect really, but it was very much a case of get there and then walk up and down a very short paddock area for a very long time. Regardless of the fact that I was there stupidly early, even if I got there for the latest time of 10:30, you still had to sit around for an hour and a half waiting to start.

 

It was on this little walking stint that I had my major dunce moment.

 

I walked past a small building; one which I had walked past several time now; but on this occasion I noticed someone coming out of it; I thought it was closed! I looked at the sign above the door, and the nice big lettering emblazoned above said door. The nice big lettering which I had seemingly missed completely. The lettering which spelled out the word CANTEEN!

“Canteen?”

“Canteen; indoors kind of canteen?”

“Canteen with warm food, warm coffee, and just general lovely indoor warmlyness (I’m claiming that as a real word, so shush!) kind of canteen!?”

“Yes Andrew… that kind of flipping canteen!”

I was furious with myself as I stepped up to the door; opened it and  then stepped inside to the welcoming blast of warm air billowing down from the fan above the entrance.

“You are such a pleb Andrew!” I thought to myself.

I had been at this place for over two hours, in the wind; and freezing cold; when there was a lovely warm canteen a few meters away from me! What an idiot! 

 

I found a nice little corner to perch myself in; did some final checks of things I had with me; and then pretty much did nothing but wait, but I was waiting in the warmth and that was what counted; I was warm!

 

At about 11:00 I decided to go and check my bag in, did a little fast walking, and then found a nice little area that was fairly quiet compared to the rest of the areas by now. Did a few little short burst sprints, and some jumping about in order to try and keep warm as I was now in full race gear and had stashed my warm clothing in my bag; now nicely stowed away.

It felt rather cool walking around with my British Lung Foundation vest on and having the official photographers stopping me every two minutes to take a picture; I had hand written MRDORSETT across it as it is my spare training vest (not my marathon race vest which has 4 MUM lettering ironed on to it

“MR DORSETT; MR DORSETT; STOP; STOP…a pic please?” … I know they were doing a job, but it still felt cool :@)

 

Eventually it was time to get down to the starting blocks and get ready to race….Finally!

 

Finally I was on the Silverstone Racing track.

Finally I felt like I was in an area I had only ever dreamed of being able to see.

Now it was time to get down to business.

 

Once again I was one of the first people down on the track, finding my pace marker locations so that I knew where to start from. If I started with the 1hr45 finishers I knew I would hit my target of that exact time. As long as I kept with that pacer; or even ahead; I knew I would be on track for a positive finish.

As the track filled up I went for a nice little 1km warm up jog. It felt awesome to be running on such hallowed ground, yet slightly eerie running around a race track with nobody in the stands, and with all the buildings look completely shut off and empty. It was lovely though not having to think about pedestrians, or other vehicular traffic.

 

I got back to my starting area; took a couple of photos and then got myself focused.

I generally keep to myself a lot at race time; unless someone actually opens conversation with me that is; if someone talks to me I’ll happily chat away; but if not I zone out. I focus on what is coming up ahead; shut the world out; think about the different paces I need to try and stick to; I go over my fuelling plans, when I plan to eat my home-made energy tabs and how often I plan on taking sips of gel water. I keep my legs moving; taking short steps backwards and forwards; take deep breaths; and just stare ahead. I know I’m no pro racer or anything, but I take race days very seriously; maybe a little too seriously when I look back on it; but I am very hard on myself and expect to deliver a performance. Plus; it was mothers’ day, and I was running because of my mom; I had to put in a good performance. I had to put in a good training session in order to test certain elements of my running ready for London; and I have to put in the performance of my life at London for my mom.

 

Whilst they had had music playing throughout the entirety of waiting around, we knew we were going to be off soon when they played the Fleetwood Mac song used in the Formula 1 intro and then PPPAAARRRRRRPP a fog horn sounded and we got going; all this waiting around; all this training; finally we got to race. The wheelchair racers flew off first, and were followed shortly by the elite runners. Within seconds my group was running over the start/finish straight, and within a few hundred meters I knew I was in the wrong zone; I felt too good inside to be running with the pace group I was in.

I kept glancing at my watch, monitoring the pace, keeping sure to be under the 5 minute mark. I check my pace fairly regularly over the first few kilometres; checking it every few hundred meters in order to monitor the pace and how I’m settling in. Once I find my groove, and notice the pace stabilising I settle in and plug away.

In order to hit a 1:45 finish I knew that I needed to run at 4:56 per km and I was running pretty much bang on that for the first few kilometres. I knew that as long as I kept under that pace I would be finishing at a better time than my 1 hour 45 target.

The fuelling plan was to have a sip of water every 1.5 - 2km; to have an energy tab on every 5^th km; and then down a tube of SiS gel; which I had in my back pocket; with 5km to go in the race.

Everything was going as I wanted it to by the 5k bleep on my watch, and I was actually running between 10-15 seconds quicker than I needed to be, but I felt good, I didn’t feel the need to slow it up at all. I knew I was on track to do well.

 

For the next 5k I found myself running at about 4:45 on average; I felt great; the water; high5 sachet and gel combo was working really well, and actually tasted really nice too; a nice lemon & lime flavour with a hint of orange from the gel.

I found myself having to run around the outside of most turns due to people bottle necking into the racing lines. This caused people to slow their pace and try to avoid tripping each other up in certain places. Some people also don’t seem to understand that there are other people running around them and just drift straight across into a bend. I saw one lady literally run straight across four blokes who all had to skip their step in order to not either trip her up, or kick her heels in their stride. I gave a little bark of “wait!” to one guy who just kept drifting in towards me with each stride as we took one of the sweeping bends. It was as if I had just woke him up as he suddenly jumped a little and then steered himself back into a single line instead of pushing me further over onto the rumble strips. I did thank him though, and then stepped on the gas a little just to edge past him and clear out onto the outside of the track, and out of the clustered group. 

 

There were live bands playing at different sections of the track; live bands being some guys banging out tunes on their traditional Indian instruments. It was a bit random, but I actually rather liked it. They were full of life, bouncing around, being really enthusiastic, and actually banging out a decent beat that was really good to run to.

There was also a dj playing some decent house tracks at one of the sweeping bends which I absolutely loved. I didn’t; however; appreciate having to be subjected to listening to One Direction and that damn song from Frozen; which the main announcer felt the need to bang out in the middle of the race; still; each to their own, and everything for everyone :@) … he made up for it by playing a bit of Led Zeppelin later though.

 

Before I knew it 10k was up, and we were nearly half way around this race, and still going strong. I felt like I was just running perfectly, not too fast, not too slow. The problem I was finding was that I was being a lot more considerate towards my fellow runners than some of them were.

People please; if you are going to spit; move to the edge of the track; or road; and spit off to the side AFTER checking that there is nobody directly behind you! There is nothing nicer than having someones phlegm/spit spraying over your face, or onto your shoes. The same goes for if you take a bottle of water from the designated areas. If you intend on only taking a bottle of water to douse the contents over yourself, or to simply rinse out your cotton mouth, do not just spit said contents back out onto the road in the middle of the track; right into the path of where everyone else is running; you sir were a knob; and my shoes did not need a wash from your mouth thank you very much.

 

The third section of the race went pretty much the same; kilometres 10-15 were controlled at around the 4:45 area; dropping from 4:45 at km 10, to 4:33 at km 12 and then back up to 4:45 at km 15. It was here that I started trying to take my last energy tab, but struggled with opening it, and even dropped in on the floor; thankfully I always take an additional tab just in case I do just that as it happened on the first time I ever tried running and eating, and was left without an energy tab to eat; lesson learned!

This little minor struggle increased my 16^th km to an average of 4:51 as not only did it include the process of getting an energy tab into my stomach, but it also involved cracking out the stashed away SiS gel.

I started to up the pace and utilised the added energy to better effect running kilometres 17; 18 and 19 in 4:25; 4:23 & 4:29 respectively. It was through these 3km that I also witnessed the greatest form of running spirit ever. A guy ahead had stopped in order to walk. We were heading up a slight incline; of which there were a few! Yes the track may be predominantly flat, but it is loaded with gentle inclines all over the track; you get your fair share of downhills’ too obviously, but these gentle inclines were a right royal pain in the bum, and managed to just sap enough energy out of you to make that little bit of a difference. 

I watched the walker ahead as I got closer and closer to him, and then noticed a big, bald headed guy wearing a green charity running vest; dart across the track toward him. I can’t remember the charity he was running for, but I remember the name on his back, SGT MACK. He certainly looked like a military kind of guy by his build; but I don’t know for sure. I also don’t know if they knew each other. What I do know is that he gave the walker a quick pat on the shoulder, glanced at him, shared a few words and got the walker running once more. SGT MACK appeared to stay with the guy and kept talking him through each step. It just stuck with me; made me feel real proud of the community we are. It threw my dislike of Mr Water Spitter from a kilometre or so before totally in the bin.

I then passed two guys who were puffing and panting away and asking themselves the question; “how much further; it seriously cannot be that much further now can it?”

“two and a bit K now guys come on don’t give in; you can do it!” I said as I stormed past them; smile beaming across my face, not because I was being smug or anything, purely because I was absolutely loving the position I was in. I had never felt so good at 19k before, I felt like I could go on and on and on, but I knew that I had a new personal best in the bag, and decided to just ease up a touch dropping my pace to into the 4:30s. I then heard a guy behind me complaining about how tired he was, and that he felt like stopping to walk; I turned around and barked at the people behind me; in a nice way; “NO! There is no stopping now, you don’t stop, you keep going, you’re so close; DO NOT STOP!”

“I’m not; I’m not; I was just saying I could!” responded the guy who had obviously said the words.

I’m very big on only saying positive things out aloud on the race track. One thing I have learned from the few races I have done so far is try not to say certain negative things out aloud; even if it may not seem like anything to you; and even though you may not be talking to those around you; those around you can still hear you; and someone nearby might really be struggling; and fighting their inner demons; to keep pushing. All it takes for that person is to hear one negative remark being said; even though you may not think of it as a negative remark to you; that negative spark could embed itself into the mind of he; or she; who is giving everything to keep their legs from stopping.

I smiled, gave him a thumbs up; shouted “GOOD MAN” at him; turned and proceeded on my way up the road; mind fixed on getting to the end now.

 

I got myself a little wound up when I watched my watch hit the 21.1k mark, and could only see the finishing banner still a way up the road. 1:39:18 I beamed to myself, a sub 1hr40 half marathon for the first time, but I’m still so far from the finish, why? How? Bloody outside line cornering! Damn you and your outside cornering. I was furious with myself and stormed toward the finish line. I sprinted toward the finish line, passing about four or five other runners in the last 200 meters or so; and crossed the finish line seriously pumped knowing I had blasted my personal best out of the water. I shouted at the sky for a brief second, and then punched my chest; I’ve never done that kind of thing before; but like I said; I was pumped! I had just run the best race of my life; clocked an official chip time of 1:41:42; and I knew that I could still have done a better job in certain areas of it.

 

All in all I can’t really fault the day. It was very well organised. It was fun, the crowds at the start line, and through certain parts of the track were simply awesome, and the goody bag at the end was absolutely brilliant containing your medal, a shirt, and then loads of drinks and sweetie goodies.

 

If there was one thing that I could have picked out as a negative it would probably have been the food vendor stands. Not a single thing on sale was of a healthy nature; a pick ‘n mix sweet van; a pulled pork bun van, and just generally things that you would expect to find at a normal fair or something. I know that I am a lot more strict on myself when it comes to my diet etc… than some people may be, but It would be nice to see something healthy being sold for once.

 

As I said though, that is a very minor issue, and very easily put to one side. The race itself, organisation etc… was absolutely brilliant, and I can really see why it is used as a build up to the main event in London next month.

I also didn’t have any trouble with traffic either; which was my biggest concern. I know that I got there stupidly early, so the getting in traffic was always going to be easy; but getting out was just as simple. People were letting one another file into the queue accordingly, and just driving as you; well; as you should really; like a normal, decent, driver! I was out on the motorway within minutes!

 

But that was Silverstone, and now we have a bigger fish to fry. Now we have London; and my first ever full marathon! Now it is time to get down to the serious side of business.

 

Don’t forget that whilst you may not be running with me; you can certainly help me by aiding my fundraising for the British Lung Foundation who do a lot of work towards researching lung disease. I run for the BLF not just because they are another charity, but in memory of my mother.

Please feel free to visit my fundraising page and put in whatever you can towards my fundraising goal:

http://www.virginmoneygiving.uk/AndrewRunningMadDorsett